Re: fetchmail dependencies

[brian@debian.org (Brian Mays)]

>>>>> "Tomasz" == Tomasz Wegrzanowski <maniek@beer.com> writes:


    Tomasz> I think there are some problems with fetchmail in slink
    Tomasz> fetchmail suggests python-tk and python-net but when default
    Tomasz> instalation(with mail selected) is done none of them(neither
    Tomasz> python itself) are installed.  So i think fetchmail should
    Tomasz> either recomend them or recomend/suggest new fetchmailconf
    Tomasz> package wich recomends them.  First concept is better IMO.

I strongly disagree.  fetchmailconf is NOT necessary for the fetchmail
program to do its job.  I, for one, have never used it.

The "Recommends" dependency is too strong.  It implies that fetchmail
should very rarely be installed without Python.  That is ridiculous, and
I don't want or need Python on my system.  Consider this: fetchmailconf
is a GUI program.  Should fetchmail also depend on X?

Furthermore, splitting every little GUI configuration program provided
by Debian packages into their own packages also is not a good idea.
This type of practice leads to too much package fragmentation.  I see no
point in creating an extra package, containing one little script, that
will never be installed unless its parent package also is installed.
The only reason to do this is to dogmatically enforce dependencies,
which, in my opinion, is better handled by our current set of
dependencies, with multiple levels of importance.

Brian